


Friendly Fire

by dasakuryo



Series: What the Future Has In Store [2]
Category: The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: F/M, Family Fluff, Fluff, Gen, Hurt/Comfort
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-06
Updated: 2016-02-06
Packaged: 2018-05-18 14:44:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,867
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5932117
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dasakuryo/pseuds/dasakuryo
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Dawn and Don found themselves at a crossroad, but there’s little their father can do to pull them out of this one.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Friendly Fire

**Author's Note:**

> Prompted by [this](http://boniferhasty.tumblr.com/post/136980296723/since-were-all-with-the-wa-headcanons-and). It was high time I stopped pestering people with my headcanons and got to write something down. Also S2B got my WestAllen family feels on high, can’t wait for the Tornado Twins ;p

He should have suspected that something was off when he saw them storm inside the kitchen, jaws set and faces contorted in something that Barry was pretty sure was anger. He tried to recall any event that came down that evening, trying to figure out why Iris could be mad at Cisco and vice-versa. He found none, or at least nothing significant enough to explain those looks on their faces as they entered the house.

He was cut short from his musings when Oliver asked for help clearing up the table, already struggling with the pile of dishes he was meant to carry to the kitchen. Barry shrugged at him, Oliver pulled a face at him and Barry could practically _hear_ the exasperated grunt from where he was standing.

“Cut it already,” the older man said, jaw set, after Barry had used his meta-human speed to carry everything into the kitchen, “I get it, you’re fast.” Oliver had a tendency to get annoyed at Barry using his meta-human powers to carry out the most mundane tasks, especially if before doing so he shoot him a petulant smile.

Barry couldn’t help but grin wider. He wanted to answer him back, but before he could do so a soft voice interjected.

“Uncle Ollie is having a hard-time as it’s without being able to go on his superhero shenanigans; you don’t have to be like that Uncle Barry,” Sarah said, shaking her head, “You know how grumpy he gets now that he can’t shoot an arrow at you when you’re being a show-off, just to prove a point.”

“My back is certainly grateful,” he chortled, “you back-stabber,” he added sourly  turning back to his friend.

“Sarah, please don’t encourage him,” Oliver begged the girl, as he scrapped his neck underneath the strap of the sling. The girl threw her arms around him, a brief but tight embrace. She kissed him on the cheek before strolling back to her father at the grill, box braids bouncing as she hurried her pace.

She halted when walking past Barry, “you should probably get in there before Auntie Iris and Tío Paco tear each other apart,” she informed; her voice took on an acute tune, almost bordering on a giggle.

Barry whooshed inside the kitchen, utterly puzzled he glanced at his children, wife and best friend, the latter two standing with their arms folded while the two teens sat at the table with utterly mortified looks on their faces. None of them seemed to acknowledge his arrival. There was a stern look on Iris face. What on Earth-

“Come on, spit it out you two,” Iris demanded, using her annoyed mother tone.

“But mum-” Don protested, “this is ridiculous! You two can’t be mad at us for this-!”

“Let your mum worry about what she can and cannot get mad about,” Iris cut him off, her tone warning as she pointed a finger at her son.

At those words, Barry certainly grew worried. What had those two pulled this time? Had they run all the way to Bludhaven again? No, it couldn’t be, Dick would have told him if they’d done so. Not to mention that neither of them would have had to have freaked out about a sudden inexplicable absence of both twins in the recent past. Had they been patrolling without authorization or supervision again? Most certainly not, Sarah wouldn’t have let them hear the end of it for weeks. Besides, the Black Canary hadn’t contacted him about any issue along those lines.

“I put a lot of effort into them since you were kids, not to mention that you always need extra quadruple of everything– so it’s a big deal for me Don. Now I’m feeling betrayed by my own children!”

“Mum, why are you taking this out of proportion?” Dawn prompted, her voice a bit hesitant but civil in its softness, as she tried to find the right words, “like I get you and Tío Paco have had this grudge for _years_ but-”

Oh, the sudden realisation hit Barry at his daughter words. Of course, the friendly baking grudge Iris and Cisco had been holding for years now. The one that started one evening at Star Labs when they started arguing what kind of brownie was better, which soon escalated into who baked the tastier goods.

Barry’d found no valid reason to complain, like ever, the extra doses of glucose did wonders for his system anyway. From an early age, Don and Dawn had been quick to see the benefit, and since Mum Iris and Cool Uncle Cisco had a soft spot for the twins it’d also been easy for them both to exploit their weaknesses.

“So you two are taking his side now?” Iris frown deepened.

Don let out a strained what at her mother words. Dawn rolled her eyes and grunted, before letting her head collapsed atop her arms on the table with a thud. If Barry knew their kids at all, Dawn was probably cursing her luck under her breath with the most colourful language she could resort to -language that surely Iris would reprimand her about, if she could make out the words from the jumble of fast speedster speech. Don was surely contemplating if making a sprint out of the situation whilst carrying her sister in the process could get past Cisco’s vibe reflexes.

He must have drawn to the conclusion that such a course of action was not possible, for he straightened his back and cleared his throat.

“We’re not taking sides, we just have personal preferences, that’s all.”

“And all we want to know is which are those personal preferences of you two, nothing else,” Cisco took part in the conversation for the very first time, lips curled up into one of his gentle smiles, “we asked the same of your father a few years back, no biggie.”

Now it was Barry’s turn to pull an annoyed face, because that’s was a complete and blatant _lie_. He remembered the question and the situation very distinctively. Actually to use the word question was an understatement, since it’d felt more like a questioning of some sort. He recalled the sensation of being conflicted, especially because Iris insistent glare had felt very very piercing and bordering on threatening underneath its apparent sweet softness. He had been really grateful back then that it wasn’t _Kara_ with whom Cisco’d chosen to hold a (friendly?) baking competition.

“Dawn?”

The girl in question pulled her arm out and with a flourish of her hand pointed at Don, who looked at her sister in disbelief and grunted, visibly crossed. Don eyes went from his mother to Cisco several times, and Barry noticed how fast his feet were tapping on the tiles.

“Well, uhm… I guess that, if I had to choose one,” he hesitated, and suddenly his worried green eyes locked eyes with his. Barry, suddenly aware of the world running literally still, nodded in reassurance and flashed his son a smile, “it’d be mum’s brownies,” his verdict was blurted out with such speed that the words bottled each other up, and Barry asked himself if either Iris or Cisco had managed to catch that.

But apparently, putting up with so many years of her husband and kids breaking into non-humanly fast conversations had paid off. Iris face lit up, and Barry could sworn he hadn’t seen such a wide petulant, self-congratulatory grin flicker across her features since the plotting endeavour with Michaela back in high school. She raised an eyebrow at Cisco, who was squinting at the boy.

“That’s it- no more gadgets for you! Next time you ruin your suit I am not making you a new upgraded one!” Cisco let out, bitterly.

Iris, still smiling, turned to Dawn once again. Barry nearly choked with his own laughter. The girl had taken up a somewhat upright posture, and apparently had decided that that moment was just as good as any to re-arrange her coils, for she was too engrossed at twirling her hair around her finger.

She looked up, however, when Cisco coughed. She mimicked her brother’s previous tiptoeing around the response, looking at each of them several times, a shadow of her exasperated frown still etched to the wrinkles on her brows and the bridge of her nose.

“Come on, Dawn, sweetheart,” Iris chanted.

Dawn’s freckles clogged into a tight darker spot on her nose, making almost impossible to tell them apart from her skin. She sighed and lounged back hastily into the chair.

“Whatever, Tío Paco’s arroz con leche.”

Iris joy fell flat and the previous proud smile vanished from her face in the blink of an eye. It was Cisco’s turn to smile victoriously, and he didn’t deprive himself from displaying an outward, louder, more expressive way of showing his excitement. He flung his arms up in the air while Iris brought a hand to her chest, staring agape at her daughter in utter disbelief.

“Esooo!” Cisco fist-bumped Dawn enthusiastically, at which the girl managed a chortle, “I hereby declare Dawn as my favourite niece, forever entitled to ask me for anything,” he draw her into a brief hug, he brought a hand to the side of his face and whispered,“that includes covering you up when you start dating, fyi.”

“Hey!,” Barry warned him.

Far from being startled at Barry’s sudden presence, Cisco shrugged.

“I’m sorry man, my hands are tied here. I am the cool Uncle, remember?” he pulled up his outstretched arms, “leave it to Oliver to be the Grumpy Uncle that rains on Dawn’s parade,”

“Why am I always the bad guy again?” the man in question complained with a hiss, tired, apparently too fed up with the situation to even bother to set his jaw and glare at him menacingly.

“It’s because of your perpetual stern face,” Cisco provided with a shrug, as if it were obvious, “also your Green Arrow voice’s kinda evil.”

Barry shook his head and patted his son on the shoulder as he walked past. Don, already on his feet and laughing at the scene at display before him, turned at the touch, there was something clouding the joy of his laugh, his smile faltered a bit.

“You should go check on mum, she’s probably still taking it in… and complaining about all those times she woke up extra early to make the extra almond brownies for Dawn,” his voice grave, holding the gaze only halfway through his utterance, he scratched the back of his neck, eyes fixed on the floor. Barry patted him again before resuming his pace.

As Don had predicted, Iris was indeed indignant about Dawn’s confession. She was actually ranting about how ungrateful her daughter was, and how a fool she’d made of herself, and how many hours of sleep she could have got otherwise throughout Heavens knows how many weekends- all to a complicit Felicity who made sure to interject every time Iris made a pause to catch her breath with nods of reassurance and a set of equally offended _totally_ -es, _how could she_ -s and _unbelieavable_ -s of her own.

The latter woman face lit up when Barry stepped inside the living room.

“High time you showed up to help,” was her greeting, pointing at all the cutlery that they hadn’t used in the end along with the one that Iris had retrieved from the shelves and arranged on the table, just in case. “I’ll be right back, I am going to make sure Oliver doesn’t manage to endanger Cisco’s life with just _one_ good arm,” she cocked an eyebrow and tilted her head towards Iris on her way out.

He paced to where she was standing.

“Does my vote count?” he asked softly, kissing her on the cheek after having wrapped his arms around her waist. He took notice of how she leaned back on his chest, and he couldn’t exactly assure it without any shade of doubt but the annoyance on her face may have washed out too -at least that much he could infer from the contemptuous sound she made when he pressed a lingering kiss to the crook of her neck.

“It does, but it’s not the same,” she retorted, caressing his hands clasped on her stomach with her fingertips.

He hummed and pulled her tighter into the hug.

“Don’t you think you and Cisco may have taken this little competition a little too far?” he prompted, “I mean- you’ve just quarrelled with your children about _desserts_ , Iris.”

“Perhaps Cisco and I got caught up in the moment, the thrill of the competition,” she answered, amused, giggling at the end of the statement, “anyway, it’s clearly your fault,” she declared.

Barry had to frown out of confusion against Iris neck, “How come this is _my_ fault?”

“Well, clearly she gets that after _you_ , who else in this family has a history of holding back feelings and avoid talking about what’s happening?” she retorted, her voice had taken on that acute rising joking tone of hers, teasing. However, she let out a sigh afterwards, “maybe I am a little hurt that Dawn hadn’t told me she preferred that instead of the brownies, I’d not have been mad and I’d have certainly maker her some if she wanted-”

“Perhaps she knows how much you like brownies and wanted you to enjoy your favourite when we were all together at home,” Barry suggested as an alternative. His voice, which had taken a warm tone, suddenly grew guilty when he spoke next, “after all we don’t have that many family weekends as any of us would have wanted.”

Iris was skilled and quick to turn about without breaking the embrace. Her concern was evident, her brown eyes softened even more with warmth upon meeting his eyes. She cupped his face, brushing her thumbs gently on his skin, a glimmer of a smile playing across her lips, before throwing her arms around his neck.

“Barry, I know what I signed for, remember?” she whispered, “and the kids understand it, they understood it all too well back then also,” she assured him, fingers playing with the short strands of hair at his nape. She flashed him a smile before standing on her toes and kissing him lightly on the lips.

A kiss he made sure to deepen. He found his hands somehow had travelled all the way from her waist to her face, cradling it. It was Iris who pulled apart, seemingly out of breath but all eyes and face glowing. She giggled at his pout. He leaned in, but found that Iris finger was on his lips and her palm pressing on his chest, pushing him away. He made sure to appear visibly offended by that action.

“Come on, you,” Iris pricked at his arm. “Is it true what I overheard? You don’t want our Dawn dating anyone? How come you haven’t told the same thing to Don?” there was a hint of disapproval in the way her voice went up.

“No- I mean yes! I mean, just- why?” he complained, as his hurry to explain himself tricked him again into blabbering an answer before thinking it through, “I am not against any of them dating, but Cisco encouraging her to keep it a secret, that I am against-”

“So I guess this is as a good time as any to tell you I’ve been dating Kyle for the past four months, dad?” came Dawn’s amused voice from the doorway. Leant on the wall and door frame so only her upper body was visible, she was wearing a mischievous smile on her face, head tilted and everything.

“Kyle Underwood? That prick from school?”

“Barry!”

Dawn giggled.

“I’m just messing with you, dad. But yeah, he’s a prick,” she shot a tiny smile in her mother’s direction, probably there was a stern scold on her face, “now stop making out you two, Kara just dropped by, come say hi,” she said, leaving before Iris reprimand about phrasing and language could reach her.

“Well, technically she was right.”

“I know, but we are her parents! It’s just weird!”

“Oh, so now my kissing is weird?”

Iris rolled his eyes at him, but linked arms with Barry as they made their way back to the backyard. The gathering night went on pretty uneventful, also without any incoming call for any of them about any crime to be taken care of or urgent incoming mission to fulfil -something pretty odd by and on itself. But, he reflected, most welcoming indeed.

* * *

By the time everyone went home, Iris had dozed off a few times. She went upstairs while Barry cleared and tidied all up in a few seconds. Iris was already fast asleep, or so he’d thought until he noticed her snuggling against him the moment he laid down. He pressed a kiss to her forehead.

“Barry?” she asked, voice drowsy from the sleepiness.

“Hmm?”

“Your kissing is not weird,” she bleated against his chest.

Barry had to bit his lips to keep himself from laughing.

“I’m relieved, it’d have been very awkward otherwise, don’t you think?”

Iris mumbled in response, “glad we cleared that out.”


End file.
